One Thing Leads to Another

On October 2nd AT&T [our Internet provider] came to our house to switch us over to the new fiber optics technology.  My hubby was anticipating the switch to be a lot more involved than it was.  We have cable hook-ups throughout our house and he thought the technician would need to have access to them, so that meant moving a lot furniture.  Turns out the technician only had to go in my office and the basement - the rest of the work was done outside.  He said our old cable hook-ups are obsolete.

Moving furniture always exposes dust and cobwebs, and spurred me into doing some serious house cleaning.  I took down the custom sheer draperies in my bedroom and washed them and scheduled the carpet cleaner to come out and begin cleaning our carpeting.

He came yesterday morning, but what a job prepping for his arrival by emptying out most of the the contents in two rooms.

Everything got crammed into the spare bedroom.  Yikes!  Home projects are always worse before they're better!  

What a good feeling to have the carpeting in two rooms and hallway cleaned.  Late last night we set the bed back up in our bedroom and today we moved everything else back into the rooms.  Next will be cleaning the family room carpeting and couch.

I was so focused on the house project that I almost forgot yesterday was Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day until the absence of mail delivery jogged my memory.

If I knew about President Biden's official proclamation in 2021 recognizing Native American contributions [hence Indigenous Peoples Day], I forgot about it.  I was surprised to learn that 29 states and Washington, D.C. no longer celebrate Columbus Day and 216 cities have renamed it with Indigenous People's Day. 

More surprising was learning the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Park in the North End of Boston which overlooked the waterfront, was decapitated beyond repair as an act of vandalism in 2020.  I took the photo below when my hubby and I visited Boston in 2016.  I wonder if the park was renamed?

I read that at least 40 other monuments to Columbus in the U.S. have been removed in recent years.  What???  When I was in grade school [many moons ago] celebrating Columbus Day by honoring the explorer and his expedition to the Americas in 1492 was a big deal. Now he might be banished from history books???

I'm going to be 'politically incorrect' and hang on to my Fitz and Floyd Christopher Columbus teapot [Figures from History 1992] while remembering his sailing expeditions.

 

It's Harvest Festival Time

Every year our church holds a Harvest Festival that's open to the community as well as our parishioners.  Yesterday [October 12th] was the day and Mother Nature provided beautiful fall weather.  I couldn't attend because I had to work, but my hubby was a volunteer helper so I asked him to take lots of pictures for me.  He complied and took over 50 pictures but I'll only share a few.

There were all kinds of activities... hayrides, pumpkin painting, corn hole, a petting zoo, horseback riding, a bouncy house, a row of about 15 cars for trunk or treating, and lots of food - a chili cook-off competition, hot dogs, hamburgers, cider, donuts and more.  It was very well attended and a huge success. The fire department even showed up for the children to see the fire engine.

Our church sits on 23 acres of property so there was plenty of room for all the activities.

Granddaughter, Brooke, bought a lion costume for her cat, Gus, to coordinate with her Wizard of Oz theme.

Daughter-in-law, Sharon, and her mom with their Snoopy theme.

My sweet friend, Lori, and her husband Rick with their spider theme.

Rows of crock pots filled with chili for the cook-off contest.

Come and get it!

While all this fun was going on, I was at The Whitney serving our signature fall tea, "Apple Cinnamon" black tea to our guests at Mansion Tea.

How have you been celebrating fall?

 

Birthday Wishes to Our Son & Granddaughter

Today is what's called a 'double blessing.'  45 years ago today our youngest [and last] child [a son] came into this world.  What a blessing Jeremy has been to our family.  And 19 years ago today, our daughter-in-law, Samantha, gave Jeremy the greatest birthday present he's ever received, when she gave birth to Isabella - who we affectionately call Izzy.

We couldn't be in Zeeland today for the double celebration [although Jeremy prefers for the emphasis to be on Izzy's birthday], so I'm sharing a photo Jeremy posted on Facebook earlier today.

Jerry and I went to Michigan State University on Thursday [where Izzy is a sophomore] to take her to lunch for her birthday. 

[Izzy and Papa]

We let her pick the restaurant and she chose Bravo! Italian Kitchen.  It was a very good choice.

We all got something different.  Izzy ordered Fettuccine Alfredo, Jerry ordered Eggplant Parmesan and I ordered Chicken Marsala.  Everything was delicious.  My entree came with mashed potatoes but they let me substitute sweet potatoes.  I had never had roasted sweet potatoes cubes before, but they were SO good and so were the roasted green beans.  I was almost finished eating [hence the messy plate, sorry!] when it dawned on me that I needed a picture for recreating them at home. As soon as we dropped Izzy off at her dorm I began searching on my phone for recipes, and found several.  After work on Friday I stopped by the produce market and bought some sweet potatoes and made them for our dinner.   Yummy and so healthy!  

For dessert the birthday girl ordered Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Bean Gelato.

Jerry and I each got Tiramisu ~

It was a lovely afternoon with Izzy and we look forward to going to Zeeland soon to have a belated celebration with Jeremy.  We invited him to join us for lunch in East Lansing but grandson, Landon, had a 4:30 football game that Jeremy was coaching so it wasn't doable. Landon is a quarterback and they won their game 37-14.

In closing, our prayers are with the countless people impacted by hurricane Helene in Florida, Georgia, North & South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.  Such tragic devastation.

All in a Day...

The street storm drain near our driveway has been sinking for a couple of years.  The city finally decided to repair it and dropped off several orange barrels yesterday with a note stating they'd be coming this morning to begin the work and we should park our cars in the street because we won't have access to our driveway for 8-10 days.

About 8:30 this morning this is what I saw from my bedroom window.  If any of our neighbors were still sleeping, they weren't for long when the huge chunks of concrete were dropped into the truck to be hauled away.

I had lunch with my high school girlfriends today, so I left my hubby sitting on the front porch watching the men work.  Two of our classmates were missing today.  The girls on each side of me have birthdays this week.

I got a yummy apple cake recipe from one of the girls that I'm anxious to make and take to work to share with the servers.  

When I returned home the workers had finished for the day and will return tomorrow.          

After fixing my hubby something to eat, I began the task of washing, wrapping and packing away the teacups from last Saturday's tea.  I sure am glad I don't have to do that job very often!

One of my girlfriends donated several teacups before she moved away, and those were the teacups I used at last Saturday's tea.  Among them were five black and white ones.  Aren't they beautiful?

First Day of Fall

Happy Fall!  I can't think of a better way to begin the first day of Fall than by sharing photos of the Ladies' Fall Tea that I coordinated at my church yesterday.

It's the reason I've been missing from my blog for awhile because work began long before yesterday's tea.  Once I determined the theme - "Broken Vessel Restoration" - preparations began. We don't usually think of ourselves as clay vessels, but Biblically we are since God formed our first parents, Adam and Eve, out of the dust/clay of the earth and breathed life in them. Because of their sin we all came into this world broken and in need of restoration by the Heavenly Father, our "potter."

I removed the spring flowers from the tiered servers and replaced them with fall flowers.

I ordered small terra cotta flower pots [in keeping with the pottery theme] for favors, and filled them with Chex Mix. [The recipe is on the box of Chex Cereal].  Yum!  It's addicting!  Below is a tray just out of the oven.

Ephesians 2:10 was attached to each flower pot: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Two boxes of favors finished and ready to go!

I ordered 'Ancient Clay Pots' fabric from Spoonflower to go on the assigned table board as well as in the center of each table and to decorate the table number cards.

We don't have a lot of storage space at church, so all the tea equipage gets stored in my basement. Which means bringing all the totes and boxes upstairs and transporting them to the church.  What a job for my hubby!  Glassware is heavy, but he's a trooper, and a great help with these teas. Our garage looked like we were moving, and it took both of our cars to transport everything   When the teas are over the process repeats in reverse, except it takes me a day or two before I'm ready to tackle washing all the teacups and other equipage and neatly repacking it for next time.  As I type this post, all those totes and boxes are sitting in the garage waiting for me to get busy tomorrow!

Since I had to work at The Whitney on Friday, we went to the church on Thursday to set-up. My dear friend, Lori Bloss [and her husband], met us there to help with set-up.  She's my right-hand in any and all my tea endeavors and I appreciate her so much.

~ My 'bestie' and me ~

The tea had a 12:00 noon arrival time with serving at 12:30.  My hubby and I arrived at the church at 10:30 a.m. and our wonderful caterer, Francine of Pamela's Catering arrived with her helper shortly after as well as Lori.  While Lori filled water goblets with ice and put milk in the creamers, I got busy brewing the tea - Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice and Pumpkin Spice Decaf, and the caterer began plating the food.  We were an efficient team.

Menu:  Chicken Salad Mini Croissants, Cucumber Sandwiches, and Ham Salad in Phyllo Cups.  Scones were Blueberry and Raspberry with Mock Devonshire Cream.  I only charge our ladies $25 to make it affordable.  It's a bargain and not a fundraiser.  

Desserts were: Brownies, Spice Cake Pops [without the sucker sticks], Strawberry and Chocolate Cheesecake Bites and Linzer Cookies.  Are you hungary yet?  ;-)

Lori and my hubby were photographers for the tea and got some really good pictures of the ladies at their tables.  The ages of ladies were well mixed.

After the meal I gave a brief devotion about how God our potter molds us into His purpose and plan for us.

We closed with one of the ladies from our 'Mother Church' [the church who helped sponsor us as a new church plant 21 years ago] leading us in the chorus of 'Something Beautiful."

Below is a picture of Linda [the lady who sang] along with Lori, her husband, Rick, and the oldest lady in attendance [96 years old].

And the 2024 Ladies' Fall Tea is in the books!  I have a while to rest-up before thinking about a spring 2025 tea!